Wikimapping puts SouthCoast on the East Coast bike agenda

Friday

Apr 4, 2014 at 12:01 AMApr 4, 2014 at 6:43 AM

The proposition is vast — 2,900 miles of paths connecting the people of northern Maine with the south of Florida. And now there's a stretch of the "Greenway" that routes adventure cyclists through SouthCoast.

SIMÓN RIOS

NEW BEDFORD — The proposition is vast — 2,900 miles of paths connecting the people of northern Maine with the south of Florida. And now there's a stretch of the "Greenway" that routes adventure cyclists through SouthCoast.

"I would expect there would be people who would treat it like an Appalachian Trail for bicycles — spend a whole year doing the whole thing," said David Watson, executive director of Mass Bike.

Watson was referring to the East Coast Greenway, a north-south network of multi-use paths connecting Calais, Maine to Key West, Florida.

East Coast Greenway Alliance, the organization coordinating the project, recently charted a segment of the route that brings riders through SouthCoast. They did it through "wikimapping," allowing anyone with an Internet connection and a sense of space to suggest the best route from Fall River to the Cape Cod Canal.

Eric Weis, trail program coordinator for the alliance, said to find consensus on a bike route would require holding meetings in all of the communities involved. "Instead, the wikimap is a way for people to provide input, on their own time and with as much details as they want, without having to crowd around the table," he said.

The project launched in the fall of 2013 in coordination with local groups. A proposed map posted at wikimapping.net began the process, and with some 50 users weighing in over the following months, Greenway decided the final route.

The Greenway prioritizes off-road paths — such as those in Fairhaven and Mattapoisett — but selects the most convenient roads when that's not an option.

The route would be familiar to any New Bedford area cyclist. Headed into New Bedford from Dartmouth, the eastward rider would take Russells Mills Road before going left up Rockdale Avenue. After turning down Hawthorn Street in New Bedford, the rider would head downtown before eventually crossing the river and picking up the bike path in Fairhaven.

The 2,900-mile project is a case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts, with hundreds of groups from Maine to Florida all doing their part. On SouthCoast, town-based groups from Fall River to Wareham have been eking out their portions of the 130-mile Providence to Provincetown Bikeway. The local groups are joined under the South Coast Bikeway Alliance, which is responsible for a 30-mile stretch (estimated to cost $30 million) in the Providence to Provincetown path.

Once completed, the Greenway would use the Providence to Provincetown Bikeway in its grand coastal network.

Molly Henry, New England coordinator for East Coast Greenway, said riders headed northward on the Greenway will have two options from Providence — to opt for a coastal or an inland route.

"We wanted to make it a really tough decision when you come to Providence," Henry said.

"They have the option to go to Worcester then head east to Boston, or the coastal route, which is to go via SouthCoast and the Cape and take the ferry (from Provincetown) to Boston."

More information about the Greenway can be found at greenway.org. Find out more about South Coast Bikeway at southcoastbikeway.com.